Jose Miguel Hernandez tells tale of 2 cultures in show at Red House Arts Center

Courtesy of Michael Davis, 2008Jose Miguel Hernandez, who immigrated from Cuba in his 20s, will perform an autobiographical show today, Saturday and Sunday at the Red House Arts Center.

Jose Miguel Hernandez is a little anxious. He’s going to spill his guts in front of a live audience for three nights. His autobiographical one-man play, “From Cuba to’Cuse: Stories of My Life” tells his tale of growing up in Cuba and the culture clash he experienced when he immigrated to the United States. It is about to open at the Red House Arts Center.

“Everybody has a story to say,” Hernandez says. “My story is funny.”

Hernandez says whenever he told friends about his misadventures, they laughed and encouraged him to put his life onstage. With help from Red House Artistic Director Laura Austin, he compiled anecdotes for what would become the first script he has ever written, not to mention the first play entirely in English in which he has acted.

Hernandez, 39, may be worried, but he’s starring in a self-directed play about himself, so certainly he isn’t shy. Still, for someone in autobiographical theater, he’s reluctant to talk about how he found himself in Central New York.

“See my show if you want to know,” he says. “Of course, I want to say more and more and more, but shut up, me.”

Since leaving Cuba after winning a visa in a 1995 lottery, Hernandez has been involved with helping young people through the Spanish Action League, founding La Liga’s La Joven Guardia del Teatro Latino, or Latino Theatre Youth Troupe. He says his show, which he hopes will teach people to respect and value everyone through tolerance, is just another way to serve the community.

“My grandmother would say, ‘You have to give to live here,’” Hernandez says. “I’m looking forward to people leaving with some idea that everybody’s different.”

But a show with a message doesn’t have to be boring, and Hernandez insists his play will be anything but preachy.

“If you want to laugh, you’ll laugh,” Hernandez says. “If you want to cry, you’ll cry, but when you leave, I want to make sure you leave the theater with something, even if it’s the poster.”